


A Living Nightmare

by The_Winter_Writer



Series: Bingo Challenge [16]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst and Feels, Betrayal, Captain Hydra, Captive Tony Stark, Dark Steve Rogers, Emotional Hurt, Established Steve Rogers/Tony Stark, Hydra Steve Rogers, Identity Reveal, Kidnapping, M/M, Married Couple, Married Steve Rogers/Tony Stark, Not Captain America: The Winter Soldier Compliant, Not Iron Man 3 Compliant, Obsessive Behavior, POV Tony Stark, Possessive Behavior, Possessive Steve Rogers, Restraints, Tony Stark Feels, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, Twisted love, Winter Soldier Bucky Barnes, dark bucky barnes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-06
Updated: 2018-02-06
Packaged: 2019-03-14 19:03:30
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,795
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13596411
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Winter_Writer/pseuds/The_Winter_Writer
Summary: Tony would trade just about anything for the nightmare taking shape in front of him to be just that: a nightmare. He wished with every ounce of his being that this was something he could wake up from instead of the cold, hard reality staring at him with familiar blue eyes.





	A Living Nightmare

**Author's Note:**

> There were a thousand ways I could have taken this particular square and I started countless possibilities before settling on this one. It's a bit different but I hope it's in a good way.
> 
> This one matches up with another random bingo square N4: Hydra!Steve. I was imagining [this uniform](https://78.media.tumblr.com/3aaa7c46ce45dd5a296cee9a96c3eda0/tumblr_ocufd5F8pN1qf364bo2_540.gif). I have some really interesting ones left for a full on blackout. I'm taking everyone all over the place with this bingo card!

Tony yanked at his restraints, snarling and thrashing, as he was hauled through hallway after hallway. They had long since gagged him, tired of his mouth, and the restraints didn’t give no matter how long he’d tried working them. Then a man, masked so his features were disguised, had come to collect him from the holding cell he’d been in for hours. No matter how hard he fought the hold never broke but it never tightened and it never hurt. That fact didn't stop him from trying everything to get free.

He didn’t want to know what was at the end of this hallway.

He didn’t want to know what was behind that big, red door that screamed malicious intent.

Fear raced through him sending his pulse racing and his breathing hitched, almost choking him, as he fought harder against the masked man effortlessly pulling him along. If he didn’t know better he would have pegged the man dressed in Hydra black and red as a super soldier but that was impossible.

The men flanking the door opened it and Tony fought harder. Something told him, something _screamed_ at him, that he didn’t want to go through that door. That same thing told him that once he did nothing would ever be the same and Tony, ever an advocate for change, feared it now.

It didn’t stop him from crossing the threshold into a huge, spacious office. The room screamed Hydra. The large chair at the desk was turned away and whoever sat in it stared out the huge window that let light stream into the room bathing darkness in sunlight.

He was forced to his knees in the center of a rug bearing the Hydra symbol. Tony glared at the floor.

Tony wanted to scream and threaten but the gag and restraints kept him in a forced submissive position. They would come. They wouldn’t leave him in Hydra’s clutches and when they did—

He could hear the soft creak of the chair as it moved but Tony didn’t look up. He didn’t want to give whoever it was the satisfaction of his attention. The sound of footsteps registered and Tony could see boots come into his line of sight but he didn’t look up.

There was a tsking sound and a low chuckle that was _familiar_.

Tony clenched his eyes shut and, without his consent, his body trembled minutely.

A warm hand, gloved except for the ends of strong fingers, gripped his chin and tilted his head up. Tony shook his head and refused to open his eyes. It would make it real and it couldn’t be real. It couldn’t.

“Come on, Sweetheart, show me those pretty brown eyes.”

Tony clamped down on the wounded sound that wanted to rip itself from his very soul and shook his head in denial. He couldn’t.

 _He couldn’t he couldn’t he couldn’t_.

This was a nightmare and if he opened his eyes…if he opened them then it would be reality and it couldn’t be. Tony couldn’t let this nightmare be reality. Nothing, not even the Ten Rings and the loss of his Mother, would compare to the agony of this if it were real.

“Shhhhh.” It was almost mocking in its softness, in its lazily offered comfort and Tony could feel his eyes burning. Heartbreak shouldn’t be this agonizing, should it? How could anyone live through this pain? _Stark men are made of iron_ but how could that be when his very foundations were cracking wide open? “Open those eyes, Sweetheart.” The endearment came again and Tony couldn’t stop himself.

His eyes cracked open and through a blur of tears he saw beautiful, heartbreaking blue staring at him with hunger and a possessiveness that stole his breath.

Captain America

Steve Grant Rogers

Tony Stark-Rogers’s Husband

Tony’s heart shattered at he took in Steve’s face and a brief flick down, a suit in black and red bearing Hydra’s monster in place of Captain America’s star, had pain lancing through him in white-hot agony. It was wrong.

Everything was _wrong wrong wrong_.

This had to be a nightmare. Steve, his loving and protective husband who fought alongside of him to protect, couldn’t be Hydra. It wasn’t possible. He’d fought so hard for Bucky, so fucking hard, that it couldn’t be possible that he’d be part of those same monsters.

Tony had seen the destruction in DC and he’d seen the fury that lit Steve from the inside when he’d spoken to Tony about Pierce.

“There you are.” A thumb brushed his cheek, catching an errant tear, before moving in soothing little motions so familiar and loving that Tony wanted to sob. The pain was worse than waking up, chest cut open, in a cave in Afghanistan and finding out a father-figure was responsible. “I apologize for the precautions but I know you better than anyone and with anything less you would have already left.”

 _Already left_ was said as though he hadn’t been kidnapped and taken only to be held as a prisoner in a Hydra base.

“I couldn’t leave you behind now that I can finally put all of my plans into motion. Not now that we’re ready for the next step.” Steve’s hand cupped his cheek and his lips brushed against Tony’s forehead in a tender kiss that Tony had briefly woken up to that very morning when Steve had left their bedroom for a _mission_.

Movement out of the corner of his eye had him glancing over. The mask was gone, the gloves discarded and the dark brown hair freed from the messy bun that had kept it away from his face. Bucky. The man who had effortlessly hauled him along had been Bucky the entire time and Tony, in his apprehension, hadn’t looked beyond the mask to see who it was behind it.

It seemed that was a failing he frequently fell victim to because he hadn’t seen past Steve Rogers and Captain America to what appeared to be Hydra’s leader.

Captain Hydra

He shook his head and tried to pull away. He needed to pull away. It didn’t matter that he loved Steve desperately. It _couldn’t_ matter. Tony took in a shaky, hitching breath and tried to pull away again but Steve’s hold was firm and careful in equal measures.

Tony would have to hurt himself to get away and Steve hated when he did anything that hurt himself. There wasn’t a question that something worse would happen should he show such blatant disregard for himself.

Steve didn’t seem to be holding back anymore and all those joking threats of tying him down might not have been joking. At least not now.

“I can see those wheels in that beautiful brain of yours turning.” The expression wasn’t in line with the menacing air and outfit that Tony observed. “But I’m prepared to keep you here, safe and secure, so you can’t get in the way. You’re always so quick to throw yourself into danger and I can’t have that. I can’t have you opposing me.”

He had to be mind-controlled.

It had to be mind-control because this wasn’t Steve.

It wasn’t.

It wasn’t the man he loved with every ounce of his being. The only human he’d given his heart to so completely and without regard for what might happen should the worst come to pass.

Tony closed his eyes and tensed. He needed to get free and figure out what had happened. “Don’t worry, Sweetheart, I’ll take good care of you.” He was easily hauled up and placed in a soft, plush chair that even when he leaned back with his restrained arms he still felt comfortable.

His knees were certainly thankful for it.

“No one knows he’s missing yet.” That was Bucky’s voice and Tony cringed away from the coldness in it. _The Winter Soldier_ his mind unhelpfully supplied. That was the Winter Soldier’s voice.

“No evidence?”

“None. Everything went according to plan.”

“Thank you, Buck.”

It was almost as though Tony was listening to a mission debriefing the way they were talking. It only made things a million times worse.

“Is everything ready?”

“Yes.” It was short and succinct, “Everything has been prepared.”

“Good.”

Their attention turned back to him and Tony weighed the pros and cons of going against two super soldiers. The pros side of the list was unsurprisingly empty and the cons list over a mile long and growing the longer he thought about it.

“It’s going to be ok, Sweetheart.” Despite the words the blue eyes were a combination of cold and possessive. Steve’s possessiveness, a twisted kind of love and affection Tony had believed was there, had Tony shivering again.

He needed to know what they were planning.

He needed to stop his husband and his husband’s best friend from whatever they were planning with Hydra but as Steve crossed back over to him Tony wasn’t sure how to accomplish it. They both knew him. They knew, for the most part, how his mind worked and how dangerous he could be.

There wouldn’t be any hope of being underestimated when it came to Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes. They wouldn’t give him even the smallest opening.

Steve picked him up in a humiliating bridal-carry and Bucky swiftly opened the door. No amount of squirming and writhing freed him; Steve’s hold was tight and unrelenting as he walked swiftly through the hallways of the Hydra base.

Each person they passed offered a bow of deference to Steve, none of them surprised in the least by him, as Bucky followed along behind them. He worked to memorize the route in the event of escape. Steve didn’t seem to worry about it. A glance up at Steve’s face revealed amusement at Tony’s obvious observation.

“Don’t stop on my account.” Steve spoke softly, “I know it will give you some small peace of mind to know your surroundings.”

The door they stopped at didn’t look special and when they stepped in Tony’s eyes darted around the room. It was relatively Spartan in its appearance. Barren and empty save for the basics.

There wasn’t a single piece of technology, nothing to be used as tools and, for entertainment, books and sketchbooks.

Tony found himself deposited on the bed, the gag removed and the restraints unlocked. The bands remained around his wrists but they were no long snapped together. Tony was under no illusion that that particular aspect could be changed with a push of a button.

“Why?”

The question as out before he could even think of it.

“They can’t be trusted to make their own choices. I came out of the ice, out of decades frozen, to a world killing itself.” Tony had known Steve hadn’t been impressed with the wars and violence after his sacrifice. He shivered as he remembered Steve’s nightmares of being incased in ice and left alone.

Hydra had always been about control and it seemed like that hadn’t changed. He just couldn’t believe that Steve, despite his issues with the state of the world, would choose to align with them.

“Hydra tortured your best friend, Steve. How can you be a part of that? There are better ways to change the world for the better. This will destroy it.”

Steve’s eyes turned hard and his face twisted. “They’re dead. Every last one of them.” He glanced back at Bucky who stood in the doorway. There would be no getting past the Winter Soldier. “Now Hydra can be what it was always meant to be and we can remake this world in our image. I’m not going to destroy the world. Far from it.”

It wasn’t flowery language, it wasn’t insanely passionate and it wasn’t maniacal. It was said as though it was a forgone conclusion and everyone else was just too slow to catch up. Tony hated how it was spoken as though it were fact and not the crazy wishes of a power hungry organization.

Tony shivered.

Steve Rogers could be charismatic when he wanted. He could turn people to his way of thinking, inspire them and lead them.

The world knew him as Captain America and as a good, just man.

They had no idea what was coming.

“The Avengers will stop you.”

Steve gave him an indulgent quirk of his lips, an almost-smirk, as Bucky shifted minutely behind him.

“They’re the next step.” He spoke easily, “We know the location of every superhuman, of every superhero, and which _must_ be removed before our plans can go forward. I won’t make the same mistakes of past _leaders_.”

Tony thought of their team, _his_ team because Steve had clearly never been a true part of it, with something bordering on desperation. Steve couldn’t mean to kill them. He couldn’t be that far gone. He opened his mouth to say something but a raised hand and a hard look stalled him.

“I can’t let you leave.” Steve said, crouching down in front of him, in a steady voice. Tony had a hard time pulling his eyes away from the nightmarish symbol on Steve’s chest in its damning red. “And I can’t risk you outside of these walls. I can’t risk you tricking someone and leaving.”

“Am I meant to be your prisoner?” Tony finally asked, “Is this my cell? Are you going to lock me up and throw away the key? Maybe wait until I can be useful?”

“You’re my husband.” Came the swift response that offered no chance to denial, “And I know you, Tony. That big heart of yours is going to get you killed but worse it’s going to pit you against me. You’ll remain here until I’m finished. I’ll visit you when I can.”

Tony jerked when Steve moved forward but large hands cupped his cheeks and soft, familiar lips captured his in a hungry, possessive kiss that stole his breath and left him reeling. His broken heart trembled in his chest and Tony’s entire being writhed in emotional anguish.

“I can’t give you access to tech but I’ve left you plenty of sketchbooks and pencils. I know you’re compelled to create. I know it helps you to focus.” He indicated the books Tony had noticed, “Think of it as a vacation. You can enjoy three meals a day, rest and you won’t have to worry about those board meetings you hate so much.”

He turned to leave and Tony jerked to his feet, body tense, as instinct shouted at him to escape.

“Behave, Tony.” Steve’s voice was low and painted with a very obvious hint of threat. He didn’t turn around. “I would hate to keep you constantly restrained. Though…” he trailed off and glanced back at Tony with something wicked in his piercing blue eyes that had Tony wanting to take a step back even as his cock responded to the heat in his husband’s gaze. “I wouldn’t mind keeping you chained to my bed. Safe, warm and ready for me. My beautiful, soft and snarky husband.”

 _I hate you_ everything in him howled its denial even as the words screamed through him in a wave of pain and threatened to burst forth into the air between them.

“Fuck you, Steve.” It didn’t have the kind of anger Tony wanted his voice to have. Something in him had broken at the hot flash of betrayal and heartbreak. That something was more than obvious in his voice and Tony hated himself for it. He hated how he still loved Steve despite the evidence of betrayal in front of him. He wondered silently if it had all been an act, if Steve had tricked him into falling in love all with the intent of this moment.

Tony wanted to scream and cry and howl against it.

He wanted those sleepy mornings back. Afternoons with lazy fucking in the sunlight and jokes in his workshop. Cuddling on the couch that turned into heated kissing, teasing Steve about his early morning runs and watching Steve sketching while he took a much needed break pressed up against his husband.

_I hate you for making me love you, Steve._

Tony’s very soul writhed in agony and he couldn't stop the tear from tracking its way down his cheek at the staggering feeling of loss he felt for everything they'd had before he had learned the truth. 

_I **hate** you because I can't stop loving you and you **know** it._

“Behave yourself _,_ _Husband_.”

Steve gave him one last look, full of knowing, before the door shut behind him and Tony gazed at the completely bare side of the door. He was trapped in a comfortable looking prison and Steve, the one person he'd been so sure of, was the one to lock him in it.

**Author's Note:**

> This is a Steve who was truly broken by his time in the ice and Hydra within Shield noticed it after the Avengers went their separate ways after New York. This Steve is far from a virtuous Captain America and has very much fallen down the rabbit hole into Captain Hydra.
> 
> Figured Hydra!Steve calls for something a bit darker and twisted just like this Steve's _love_ for his Tony Stark. Steve fully intends on taking good care of Tony (Tony is his after all)...it's just...well it's Hydra Steve's version. Basically Steve is going to be leaning very heavily towards Tony's established love and Stockholm Syndrome to win him over. Eventually.
> 
> I'm curious what you thought of it. Didn't manage any smut, only hints of it, but it didn't really fit what I wanted to show which was a snap shot of a potential Hydra Steve in the MCU. 
> 
> So...how did I do? This is my first time attempting Dark Steve so I'm curious...


End file.
